"Well Flip Elder"

Dear Fans of Carter Wilcox,
     It is now mid August and there have been little updates to this blog. MY BAD! Here are his letters from least to most recent, with pictures thrown in intermittently. Carter has been transferred from the office to a new area where he is working as senior companion to a new missionary. He's loving life and the Ecuadorian members have commented multiple times on the caliber of man he is.

¡14/03/15 Y muchos fotos!

How are you? I hope you´re doing well. :) How was your week? My week was a little busy but it was all well in the end. Here´s how it went:

Carter decided to be funny and send out half of his email in Spanish this week. The translation is: "This week I did a lot for visas and passports of the missionaries and everything went really well. I almost had problems Friday, but we made an agreement and only need to go a few more times and everything will be good. I'm assuming he's talking about the visa office in Ecuador and visas for incoming missionaries. I also did almost everything I had to do to prepare for the finishing missionaries the other week and I'm excited to help another group of missionaries return home and start the next phase of their live."

It was super fun though! I love being Secretary because I get to help people more! 
I had a baptism last night! His name is Jabeth H. and he´s super awesome. We´re like bros now so it´s pretty sweet.
That´s pretty much it.

Love, Elder Wilcox

Carter with his companion Elder Romero and the Alvarado family.

Elders Romero and Wilcox

Elder Wilcox with the Assistants

Mickey lollipop

Ronald McDonald, agreeing to be baptized

"Huh?"

Elder Wilcox with his plaque,
"Mission President's secretary, Ecuador Guayaquil South Mission"

They found Subway!

"Nom nom nom"

With his trainer, Elder Rodriguez

The Catch-Up Game

     In an effort on our part to catch you up on Elder Wilcox's life in Ecuador, here are a select few emails from the past few months. Since the last blog post, his trainer Elder Rodriguez left and Carter was put with Elder Perez from Panama. He was with this companion when we talked with him on Skype Christmas Day. In updating Carter's Facebook page, many members have commented on his happy demeanor and how funny of a guy he is. :) We've also learned that he's had two other companions between his current companionship and Elder Perez. He has 8 months as a missionary already.
    Carter was transferred from Santa Rosa South to Guayaquil, where he is currently serving as the Mission Secretary to the President with Elders Espinoza (from Arizona) and Cayax (from Guatemala). As of this month he is now also the District Leader. He says it's hard and scary, but challenging and he enjoys it. (Office elders tend to have their mission office duties and then serve in a proselyting area after office hours.) Pictures of the past few months will posted sometime in the next week. Enjoy!:

**"Well this week came by huge surprise to me! I was living with the Zone Leaders at the time and the Assistants called and told them that I have transfers so I packed everything and went to the bus terminal the next morning. And as you know they told me that I´m going to be training to be the new Secretary and at first I just thought it was a joke but then they told me that it was really what was going to happen. Being Secretary is a lot of work but I also really enjoy it. It´s helping me be more organized in my life and teaching me how to do complicated things. Thank you so much for the opportunity that you have given me to do this!

**Hola Presidente!
Well this week was just another normal week! Not much new. Just teaching and preaching and all that fun stuff!! This week what the Lord has been teaching me is Patience. I live with my companion and one other companionship and they always pick at me like I used to pick at Kendle. (Bit of karma as well...) Holy cow they bug the crap out of me. But during my personal study I`ve been trying to develop patience and reading about how Jesus did things really helps me to control myself. I`m getting better but it`s still a work in progress.

**The week was SUPER busy!! I went to the airport 5 times this week!! 3 times to send missionaries home (Disobedient, trunky, and finishers) and 2 times to do transfers for the Galapagos Islands. Twas lots of times and lots of waiting.... Not much else happened after that. I also slept in the temple hotel (Note to the Reader: In other countries, members often travel long distances to receive temple ordinances. To help lower costs, some LDS temples have rooms where visiting members can stay for free) for a couple nights which was really cool. :)

**Well honestly, I don't remember a lot about the week... That's why I write things down!! Life as the Secretary is super busy but it's also SUPER fun!!! I get to talk to and meet lots of the missionaries and this coming week we have a new group of missionaries coming in and a group that's leaving so it's really cool to see brand new missionaries and their super scared faces and also the awesome stature of the missionaries who are finishing with honor. I also go to the airport a lot.... The transfers to the Galapagos are all coordinated and taken care of by me so it's fun to buy plane tickets and get people on planes and pick them up and what not! This week will be fun because I'll be sleeping in the Temple hotel pretty much the whole week!!! Super excited!!! Have a great week! Love you all!!!
Love, Elder Wilcox

**This week was a good week. We had a lot of lessons with and without members but not very many new baptismal dates yet. We're working hard and praying that we'll find that golden family that´s waiting. We are working with a family that wants to get baptized but just needs a couple papers to get married then we can baptize them. We also taught a lot of lessons to Less Active members and we had one rescue this past week with a goal of more this week."

But it's whatevs...

"I wish it was cold here! Haha this time of year is when it gets hottest here! We were in the Mission office last week and that`s why I didn't write. I've lost weight because of sweating and walking in the heat all day, I`m not sick. I`m not sure how the call for Christmas will be but I will let you know when I know :) I understand like almost everything but ya speaking the language is a lot harder but it`s coming along. People tell me that I`m doing WAY better than other Gringos that they've known but it`s whatevs.. (Carter's dad and older brother also didn't have too much trouble with the language, apparently it runs in the family) I just wanna know the language ya know?? Yes there`s a lot of English speakers in my zone but we all speak Spanish whenever we talk any way so it doesn't make that much of a difference. Ya the box hasn't come yet but I`m sure it`ll come some day. (Carter's mom sent him a box about a month ago, and it still hasn't made it to him yet)

This week was another week of looking for more and more people to teach. This week we didn't have as much success as we would have liked but we`ll keep trying. One of our baptismal dates for this week is proving to be a bit of a challenge because of the religious leader he had in his other faith. But we`re working hard on him along with the sisters and I hope all will go well for his baptism this week. We also have a family that is getting married today so that they can get baptized this Saturday as well and I`m really excited about it!"

Yep. That's Carter

End of Transfer 1 in Guayaquil

"Hey everyone, sorry I don`t have time this week at all. I`m in Guayaquil right now (Just for the day, I don`t have transfers) and I only have time to write to the President and to send this one email. Hope you all have a great week and I love you all!! :)

Letter to Pres:
This week we kept working with the families that we had and we also found another man named Miguel A. and we put in a baptismal date with him for the and we`re really excited about him because he has a really strong desire to learn and he`s super receptive to everything. He also asks questions so it`s a great opportunity to teach him. I`m still learning more and more Spanish, of course as I probably will be for the rest of my life and I seeing the hand of the Lord in my life in helping to open my mouth and speak a language that I barely know.

Have a great week!! :)
-Elder Wilcox"

Latest Baptism

He's been in the country for less than 3 months, already has a jersey.

October 27, 2014

"This was a really good week for finding people. We found a family on our own and we put in a few baptismal dates for the kids and we have the permission for them so we just need to keep working hard with them. The parents aren't married so we won`t focus as much on them but if they will join us for lessons it would be great. We also found another family and we`ve only talked with the parents and we've made a little progress with them but not much has happened with them yet. The District Conference was really great and I enjoyed listening to all of the talks and especially the musical numbers. I felt the Spirit so strongly during the last song. Yesterday as well we had a lot of investigators in the church and it was a great sight.

Also Pres came to our zone and gave us a training which was super awesome. He´s such a spiritual guy and I feel super lucky to have him as my mission president!!"

October 13, 2014

"We just have the assistants and the ZL`s bring the mail when there is some. I got a letter from Ensley and that`s it so far. You can look up how far away I am. I`m in Santa Rosa, Ecuador so just look it up on Google Earth. Like, the Peruvian border is about an hour away from me by bus and the Mission Home is in Guayaquil which is 4 hours away. THIS IS THE REPORT TO MY PRES. There`s not much in it:

This week we had another baptism. Her name is Milena R. and she was a reference from the Hermanas and the reason she didn`t get baptized before was because she wanted to be baptized in a river so we set it all up and she was baptized and it was a really great experience. Our numbers are low right now and we`re trying to work as hard as we can. I`m still learning Spanish and all the scriptures for the lessons and the techniques but it`s coming along and hopefully I can have them all down soon. This week was also my birthday and it wasn`t any different from another day except that it was Milena`s baptism"